Your Backyard Needs a Shady Garden
Deciding where to plant your garden depends a lot on sun exposure – where the sun hits your yard and for how long. But shade can be more beneficial than you think, protecting your plants from the summer heat and keeping them from sunburn or excessive drying out. Some plants even like shade more than sun.
If you choose the right plants, your garden can go out into open spaces that don’t usually get a lot of sun. Here are some tips for planting a garden that grows well in shade.
What is a shady garden?
The shady garden contains plants that require little sunlight to grow. If your backyard has a lot of trees with a canopy that lets little light in, or if your house or porch blocks light from entering your backyard for a long time, then a shady garden is probably for you.
What is considered “almost complete absence of light”? According to Gardenista , shady gardens are plants that can live less than four hours of sunshine per day.
There are three types of shade
Plants need some kind of sun, but it is important whether it is indirect or short-lived. The shade is divided into different categories: partial shade, dense shade, and full shade. According to Pennington , partial or “medium shading” refers to half a day of shade, approximately six hours; full shadow may sound like complete darkness, but it’s actually about two hours of direct sunlight; and heavy shade means only indirect sunlight for a short period during the day.
Other degrees, such as “light shade,” “spotted shade,” or “filtered shade,” are described as “areas around the edges of shady gardens or where sunlight seeps through leaves and falls on the ground throughout the day.” Before choosing any plants, go to the shade levels in your yard because this will determine the types of plants you want to buy.
How to plan a shady garden plot
Before buying any plants, you need to know what type of garden you want and where you want to plant. Real Simple spoke to gardener and lifestyle writer Stacey Abdallah, who suggests knowing your area and planting native plants to withstand the climate and support the natural ecosystem. Abdallah also recommends charting where to plant your shady garden before even collecting seeds.
For example, decide if you want raised plant beds or if you will be growing plants in the ground near your home and what area you should play in. And if you are planting around trees, you need to plant far enough not to damage the tree roots or let the roots steal water from your shade plants.
Choosing the Right Plants for Your Shady Garden
Consider what kind of space you want to create. If you want privacy where you can sit in the shade and enjoy the scenery, you can plant flowering shrubs like rhododendrons, which require partial shade and look beautiful next to your porch or garden bench. Or there is a cage that produces light pink flowers. For lush greenery, there are hosta plants that go well with stone paths.
If you want a vegetable garden that can survive in your shady backyard, Real Simple offers low-light vegetables like spinach, chard and kale that will also survive a fall . If you prefer to cover more ground or replace the grass with something that will survive your lawn in low light (other than grass in low light), you can opt for spreading plants such as purple coleus or, as a focal point, black Mondo grass .
What to look for when caring for a shady garden
The best part about a shady garden is that less light tends to mean less weeds, but you need to tackle other issues instead. Aside from not damaging the trees while digging the garden, it’s worth mentioning again that you need to plant far enough away from the tree roots that can steal water from your shade plants. You also need to beware of fungi and fungal plant diseases. Because shady gardens don’t get a lot of sun, they also don’t dry out as easily as sun-exposed plants after watering or heavy rain, so you need to keep a close eye on them and treat any signs of illness if they arise.